1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to powder dispensing brushes, and more particularly to a brush for applying pesticidal or medicinal powder onto the skin of an animal covered by hair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many devices known in the art are adapted to dispense pesticides such as flea powder into the fur or hair of a domestic animal during brushing or grooming. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,724, Merchill, discloses a flat powder-dispensing brush with a body comprising first and second angularly related faces with an inlet at the second face and a passageway therefrom to the first face. The passageway may be connected to a flexible-walled container from which powder may be squeezed while brushing an animal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,143,982, Cox, discloses a dispensing brush tray with an upraised rim and a bottom with discontinuous longitudinal slots and projecting bristles. Slidingly attached to the tray is a powder container having a bottom with cross slots alignable with the slots in the tray. By manually moving the container relative to the tray while brushing an animal, powder may be controllably dispensed.
A number of U.S. patents disclose powder dispensing brushes which employ hollow bristles or other kinds of projections with ports through which powder is dispensed, most notably including U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,423, Bryan; U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,154, Valenza; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,433, Cary. U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,625, Futter, discloses a powder dispensing brush of the pressure-feed type.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,880, South, discloses a grooming and dispensing brush with an inner tubular wall having a plurality of ports through the wall and an open-ended chamber which may be filled with powder and closed. An outer tubular wall surrounds the inner tubular wall, said outer tubular wall having a plurality of ports extending through the wall and bristles. The outer tubular wall has a tightening mechanism which allows it to be released and to rotate around the inner cylinder during brushing, thereby alternatively aligning ports in the inner and outer tubular walls so as to distribute powder. While dispensing powder, the bristles rotate along with the entire outer tubular wall.
Note that the term "bristle" is used herein in its generic meaning to cover not only what is known in the art to be denoted by "bristle", but other grooming projections such as claws, pins, pegs, posts, tines, teeth, and so forth.
The present invention allows the user to dispense medicinal or pesticidal powder onto the fur or hair of an animal and simultaneously to work the powder into the animal's skin simply by brushing. Unlike devices in the prior art, no act or movement other than brushing is needed either to dispense the powder or to control its flow. The rate of powder flow is controlled by the rapidity of brushing, and the amount of total powder dispensed is controlled by the duration of grooming.